Companies wage Post-it 'war' across Canal Street

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - After a lot of pointing and waving, Tuesday evening, followed by a quick round of charades between Fox 5 on the street and Getty Images by a fifth-floor window, that company's social media czar, Bridget Bogee, set down the stationery and ventured outside to explain to us what in the name of fluorescent paper squares with adhesive strips on the back was going on in her building's south-facing offices and the offices toward which they looked in the building across Canal Street.

"We noticed there were some Post-its across the way," Bogee said in one of the greater understatements of 2016.

And evidently that observation -- shared by many, most of whom didn't know one another, many of whom apparently work for rivaling advertising agencies -- demanded a call-to-office supplies followed by a series of sticky acts of aggression.

"When the day's over, we've been working on Post-it war," Bogee said.

As best we can tell: At some point probably on Friday, one tenant in one of the two buildings on the western end of Canal Street between Hudson and Varick wrote "Hi" in Post-it notes on a window facing toward the street. Four days and thousands (tens of thousands?) of sticky notes later, no one on the block seems to be doing any work and Post-it representations of Spider-Man, Apple, Snapchat, Donald Trump's hair, Marilyn Monroe, ocean animals, Wolverine and seemingly anything else one can imagine adorn dozens of windows facing Canal Street.

"It's impressive," nymag.com Associate Editor Joe DeLessio said. "I can only imagine how long that takes and how many people that takes."

DeLessio observed the escalation in super hero symbols and tech company logos on the windows of the building on the south side of Canal Street from his office across the demilitarized zone (the street itself) in northern territory and wondered: Who had the time to do this?

Bogee said the New York City Getty Images team created much of its Post-it art (John Snow, Angry Birds, the Instagram logo and more) after business hours.

"We're a creative bunch," she said, "so I think we all just sit around and think up what are cool and challenging designs to do."

Getty's artwork so impressed Post-it -- or so convinced the company of a flawless marketing opportunity -- it mailed Getty a suitcase of its multicolored product, encouraging Bogee and her coworkers to continue decorating their office windows.

"We have a couple of really big things planned for tomorrow," Bogee said, "so every day is something new for us."

And so, the great Post-it war of 2016 raged on, with no end in sight from either side of Canal Street, only colorful depictions of pop culture.